Chapter 137: It's a Human, Not a Ghost

The sky slowly brightened. Zhang Su stared with a pair of bloodshot eyes. Lucky was lying at his feet. It didn't know which puddle it had washed in, but the mud on its body was gone, and it had returned to its original color, just a bit frizzy, probably because it shook itself after washing.

"Brother Su, Chen Hanzhou hasn't turned into a zombie for so long, he should be fine."

Zheng Xinyu lifted Zhang Su's arm to check the time. It was already past seven in the morning, more than two hours after the zombie horde attack. Recalling Qiu Shu, who escaped with Lu Yubo, this time was enough for him to turn.

"Cough, cough." Zhang Su cleared his somewhat dry throat, picked up water and took a sip, shaking his head: "It took much longer than when Qiu Shu turned, but individual differences cannot be ruled out. We still need to continue observing."

As he spoke, he stood up and stretched, bent down to look out the window. The dark clouds had dispersed, and the sun was shining on the earth again, covering the wet road with golden light. It was a pity that in this sacred light, corpses, severed limbs, and various internal organs were scattered.

Zhang Su looked at the zombie corpses piled up all over the ground and looked solemn, saying: "We can't stay here. We need to find a relatively safe place to rest!"

After saying that, he prepared to get off the car to notify everyone, but was pulled by Zheng Xinyu.

"What about Chen Hanzhou? You said you would watch over him."

Zhang Su turned his head to look at Chen Hanzhou, who was sleeping, handed the pistol to Zheng Xinyu, and said: "You watch him for me first!"

"I, you, damn, you irresponsible man. I don't want to, ah, hey!"

Zheng Xinyu looked at Zhang Su walking off the car, then looked at the USP in her hand, feeling as uncomfortable as if she had eaten a fly.

"Brother Su."

"Big brother, what should we do in a bit?"

"Is Chen Hanzhou okay?"

When Zhang Su walked into the Mercedes RV, everyone looked at him. Almost everyone was very wretched, blood plasma, mud, and who knew what else covered their bodies, and the smell in the car was also quite complex.

Fortunately, the temperature was only seven or eight degrees, otherwise, added to the stench of the zombies, it could have suffocated everyone present.

"Xiao Chen is temporarily fine. Prepare yourselves. We can't stay on the highway. I remember there is an abandoned factory about a mile to the north. Let's go there and settle down temporarily!"

Zhang Su pointed to the north. Several hundred meters away, dilapidated red brick houses could be vaguely seen, with very distinct characteristics of the last century, products left over by the era.

"That, aren't we going back to the city?"

Zhou Litao, one of the Tiguan trio, asked. As a result, he found that everyone around him was looking at him with strange eyes, and even his two colleagues were the same, which made him very embarrassed.

Zhang Su looked at the person who spoke and said: "Is your name Wang Xin?"

"Brother Su, I am Wang Xin, he is Zhou Litao." The tall Wang Xin smiled sheepishly and introduced them again. Time was short, and it was normal to mix up names.

"Oh, Zhou Litao, the situation in the city is complex. In our current state, it's difficult to deal with tricky situations. Choosing a closed and safe place to rest first, do you understand?"

In front of almost all his companions, Zhang Su didn't want to rudely retort to Zhou Litao. Authority maintained by violence wasn't reliable. He knew that everyone was willing to follow him not just because his combat power was high.

"Un, understood." Zhou Litao answered somewhat awkwardly.

"You talk too much. Brother Su has his considerations for arranging it this way!" Liu Tianji was very dissatisfied and retorted to Zhou Litao.

Wang Xin also shook his head irritably, stood up, and said: "Brother Su, is there anything we can help with?"

He and Liu Tianji had already made up their minds to join Zhang Su's team. As for what Zhou Litao thought, they didn't care anymore. If he was willing to stay, he should perform well. If not, they were not on the same path.

Zhang Su looked at the Tiguan trio with a strange expression. Naturally, he saw that they were already at odds. Now was not the time to deal with these things. He said: "You guys take the Prado to scout the situation at the factory first. If there are any obstacles, clear them, and check the environment by the way."

Those who knew Zhang Su understood that he intended to test the abilities of Liu Tianji and the others.

Liu Tianji stood up immediately, nodded, and said: "Leave this little matter to us, but Brother Su... we don't have weapons."

"Even if you abandon the car and flee, you must carry weapons and the most basic supplies with you!"

Zhang Su couldn't help but criticize. Zhao Xue and Wu Lue did this very well; their backpacks and weapons weren't lost. He looked at Zhao Dezhu: "Zhuzi, take them to get a few weapons."

"Alright!"

Zhao Dezhu responded and moved.

A moment later, the Tiguan trio set off on the road...

"Brother Su, are you so sure they won't drive the car and run away?"

Lu Yubo was a bit absent-minded. The Prado was now his assigned vehicle, and it would be heartbreaking if it were stolen.

"Run away? They wouldn't leave even if I beat them away. Don't worry, absolutely not!" Zhang Su was very certain, then said to everyone: "Hurry up and pack!"

Four or five minutes later, everyone on Zhang Su's side was ready and returned to the car. The two RVs carried more than ten people and drove toward the factory area.

"What, what skin, no, this is a glass factory, right?"

Zhang Su drove to the factory gate. The pair of big iron gates had long since disappeared, probably dismantled and sold as scrap metal, leaving only two dilapidated cement pillars on both sides.

There should have been five characters on the lintel, but after years of wind and sun, only half of the "glass" character remained. Based on Qincheng's history, it wasn't hard to guess that this was a glass factory from the last century.

"That's right, Brother Su, this used to be Nonghua Glass Factory. Come forward, come forward, it's fine, it's high enough, it won't hit!"

Liu Tianji, like a parking lot security guard, conscientiously directed the RV to drive into the factory area.

Creak, creak, creak.

The heavy RV drove on the road surface destroyed by time, directly crushing the cement board into spiderweb cracks...

Because the terrain was higher than the highway, there wasn't much accumulated water in the glass factory. Weeds grew on the spiderweb-cracked cement road. In some high places, one could hide a person without any problem.

The leaves on the tree branches were slightly yellow, the old factory walls were peeling, revealing the bricks and stones inside. Traces of time were everywhere, telling of their vicissitudes.

The entire factory area wasn't large, and all the buildings were in full view at a glance. Two factory buildings, one warehouse, and a shed that had long since lost its roof, which was probably an area for loading and unloading goods.

"What's the situation inside?"

Zhang Su parked the car in the center of the factory area and jumped off the car to ask Liu Tianji and the others.

"No problem." Liu Tianji waved his hand at the factory area and said: "No people, no zombies, nothing useful, just not very clean."

Zhang Su saw Liu Tianji's strange expression when he said it wasn't very clean. While walking toward the largest factory building, he asked: "Why isn't it clean?"

"He-he..." Liu Tianji smiled awkwardly and said: "I estimate children from nearby villages ran over to play and then defecated everywhere..."

Zhang Su paused his steps, then smiled and shook his head. Compared to the zombie corpses outside, feces were nothing.

Just as Liu Tianji said, apart from the scattered garbage on the ground, there was nothing of value in the factory building. There were feces and toilet paper in the corner, which should have been from a long time ago, and there was no stench in the air.

The gray walls had patches of chalk graffiti, messy and indistinguishable, with very rich colors, full of childlike fun. Under the graffiti were various inspiring slogans. Who knew what kind of pigment was used, but they were still vaguely visible after decades.

Zhang Su knocked on the support columns and walls of the factory building with an axe-hammer, looked up and shone the flashlight at the roof, and said: "The architecture of the last century is really sturdy. It hasn't collapsed after being abandoned for so many years, and it doesn't even leak much rain!"

Except for a few places where rainwater dripped, most of the roof was still intact.

"It really is. Brother Su, I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't said it. Damn, that broken top floor Dong rented, that residential area has only been there for a few years, at most seven or eight years, and it's already leaking. It made us go and argue with the property management, so annoying."

Lu Yubo complained immediately.

Yu Wen stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the vaguely visible slogans on the wall, and said with emotion: "That era was different. In that era, people had brilliance in their eyes, faith in their hearts, and strength in their actions!"

"Alright, alright, Teacher Yu, stop lecturing for now. Everyone work together, let's clean up this area... Hmm?"

Zhang Su was just about to instruct everyone to prepare to start cleaning when his ears moved, and he heard an unusual movement.

The little Corgi Lucky also turned its head.

The person and the dog looked at each other, and both saw a certain expression in each other's eyes.

"You didn't check every place?"

Zhang Su pulled out the axe-hammer from his waist and asked Liu Tianji and the others with a frown.

Everyone saw Zhang Su's reaction and felt a tightness in their hearts. No one doubted his early warning ability. They hurriedly took out the weapons they carried and looked around, but apart from the mottled walls and broken windows, there was no abnormality.

"We, we..." Liu Tianji was at a loss, not knowing what had happened, and said awkwardly: "We didn't have time, Brother Su. We just walked around this big factory building, and then we heard you guys coming. What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? There are zombies!"

Zhang Su raised his eyebrows and walked toward the factory gate. The sound came from another enclosed space. If it weren't for Yu Wen's emotion just now, and everyone listening carefully and being quiet for a moment, he really wouldn't have noticed that subtle movement.

Everyone followed Zhang Su out of the factory building cautiously, their spirits tense.

Zheng Xinyu, who was ten thousand times unwilling to stay in the Faulkner Mobil to watch over Chen Hanzhou, suddenly saw everyone walking out of the factory building, each carrying a weapon. Her face was startled, and she hurriedly squatted down to check around, gripping the USP tightly, paying attention to the situation outside the window while occasionally turning her head to look at Chen Hanzhou. She was very busy.

"Over there!"

Zhang Su pointed to the warehouse where the broken iron door was ajar.

"I'll go take a look!"

Lu Yubo turned on the flashlight and walked quickly to the warehouse door.

"Hmm?!!!"

Shining through the hole in the door, but when Lu Yubo fixed his eyes to look inside, he was so scared that he took several steps back, almost sitting on the ground.

Everyone knew Lu Yubo was bold and reckless, daring to stab anyone, whether human or zombie. Something that could scare him definitely wasn't simple. Many people's muscles tightened, as if facing a great enemy.

"Ghost, Brother Su, a ghost!"

Lu Yubo jumped to Zhang Su's side, his expression distorted. Clearly, he had been scared quite a bit just now. If it weren't for the habit he had developed over the recent period of not shouting and yelling, he would have screamed out loud.

"A ghost?"

"It's bright outside, and this warehouse doesn't even have windows. It's gloomy and terrifying inside. It's really possible..."

"Possible my ass, stop guessing. There's no ghost, it's a human!"

Zhang Su shook his head. He had clearly heard a series of footsteps just now. He estimated that the person inside had also been scared by Lu Yubo.

Hearing Zhang Su say it was a human, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, clearly believing his words more.

Lu Yubo scratched his head: "Ghost or human, it's terrifying anyway. The head was like that, the hair was like that, the face..."

No one knew what Lu Yubo, who was gesturing wildly, was trying to express. His vocabulary was extremely poor.

Zhang Su shook his head and stopped watching Lu Yubo's performance. He walked to the warehouse door and pushed the broken iron door open gently with the axe-hammer, making a "creak, creak, creak" sound that made one's teeth ache.

"Where's the ghost? Come, Brother Lu, point it out to me. Let's see if you're a coward, hahaha."

Zhao Dezhu shone the flashlight and walked into the warehouse first.

Everyone followed the flashlight beam and looked around. The warehouse, about twenty meters square, had nothing but a few rotten logs, and various garbage like the factory floor. The walls were also scribbled with chalk, messy and indistinguishable. The air emitted a damp, rotten, and dusty smell.

Finally, everyone's eyes fell on the office in the corner of the warehouse. If someone were hiding, only that place had the conditions!

"Come out. We know you're inside!"

Zhang Su walked a few steps toward the office and said loudly.

Awooo, awooo.

This time everyone heard clearly. It was indeed the sound of a zombie, but it was a bit muffled, as if the mouth had been blocked by something.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 138 =====